Six: Welcome back to the next chapter everyone. We got something special for you this time.
Three: If you guessed actual combat from the supcom side, I think you are correct. Will they see combat this time six?
Six: How should I know?
Three: You write the chapters?
Six: Yea, but stuff happens and plans change. While it is planned for this time, it may not happen for one reason or another. I won't know until I finish, and so will you.
Ridli Scott: It is planned for this time, let's hope I actually get it done.
Kinunatzs: There is a reason, I assure you. I knew this question would come up and came up with what I believe is a good reason. It will be explained either near the end of this chapter, or the next one. I thank you for waiting. You may have a cookie.
LordGhostStriker: If the turians get a tier three factory, why couldn't they build tier three units. I do however understand what you are saying. Who also says that they could even use the building.
ACU's are user locked. Is this actual a thing. It does make sense thou.
Brian01: Just remember that the teleporting does have a range.
edboy4926: Will fix spelling errors as best I can.
I cannot tell you when this takes place, but you should be informed sometime in the next few chapters. I just don't know when.
Telron: Yes, it is the cybrans. Of all the factions, the cybran are my favorite. As for the reactions, well, it will be interesting to say the least.
818carlos: Here is the update for you, hope you like it. Have a cookie.
thunder18: Look up one.
KorPA: I do not think that is how you build a ripper. If it is, that is one bad ass ripper.
Anonymous (Anon): "What would the Reapers be to the Seraphim and vice versa?" Something that needs to die. If you want details, you'll have to wait and see them meet, or at least learn of the other.
Seeing anyone reaction the base building will be fun. And some scientist ended their life from it all.
Massive scale battles will be hard in mass effect, but small scale battles in supcom, I have plans for that.
I hope you find entertainment in this.
Trife: That is probability the crash I had for a few years not too long ago. I will limit the stories to what I have before I move onto more. I like working on more than one at a time, because reasons. Thanks for thinking of me.
Dawn of Destruction: Hopefully the chapters will get longer, but time will tell.
eye of Sparta: Here's another chapter for you. I will make the needed corrections, thanks for telling me.
I have got two quest reviews (one from this story and one from The Four Elements) saying that I abandoned them. I don't know what baseless comments these are, but they didn't even have the balls to review with an account. I will say this right now, I will never abandon my stories. I may take a long time to update, but I am only human, I have other things going on in my life, I can't put all my time into these stories, and I am slow at making them plus I have to take my time to think over how I want each part to go. I get it, I am bad, but I say this now, don't leave reviews like this without knowing who I am, it's sad to see and I feel pity for these people who do so.
I take breaks while writing these stories, this past one being the longest one yet, and sometimes it takes a while to get back on track. I am sorry for this as I know some people actually like my stories. For those of you who don't like them, why are you still here? You are wasting both my time and yours. Just leave.
818carlos helped bring several new ideas to this chapter. I give credit where credit is due.
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Potiius was standing calmly in the landing bay waiting for Primarch Hostus to arrive. He was with several others also waiting for his arrival. He was doing his best to appear as calm and collected as possible. It was a Primarch he was meeting after all. Hostus was currently flying over in a dropship.
The reinforcements had arrived not too long ago and were already getting ready for deployment. Before they could do that however, they needed the most up to date intel to make the best plan possible. There was also one other thing they needed to take care of first.
They needed to get communications running with the humans. While not vital right now, the sooner it was taken care of the better.
Getting information from them would also overall help them create a better plan. As they were the ones to create the city, they would know what was what and where all the pathways were. Scans could only give them so much info about the place.
He hoped an asari was with them for a mind meld. That would make it that much easier for them, but he could wait until later if the asari couldn't make it for a while, transferring someone here on such notice would be hard.
The dropship just entered the landing bay and thrusters were lowering the craft down gently. Potiius stood that much straighter and focused on what was going on in front of him, no time for him to be distracted.
After a short while, the craft finally landed. The side door slid open and out stepped Hostus along with four of his personal guards. Potiius did take note of no asari stepping off with them.
Potiius would never say it out loud, but he was nervous to meet Hostus. Hostus was one of the oddball turians that appeared every so often. He thought somewhat differently than others and used strategies or ideas that others would not even think of or use. He was a strange one. Not to say that it was bad, but oddball turians tend not to get along well with command.
Given that he is a Primarch now, that doesn't apply much anymore, but it still was sometime of note.
Either way, he had a job to do.
"Greetings Primarch." Giving a slight bow.
Hostus himself didn't directly respond other walking up to Potiius and nodding. His guards right behind him. "Captain, please to meet you. How are the... heumans...doing?" Doing his best to pronounce humans correctly, but still saying it a bit off.
"Humans sir, and they're doing fine over in the transports. Their physiology is close enough to asari for us to point us in the right direction. Not the best, but it works." He used his right arm to gesture to his left.
With a small turn, both headed to the bridge while talking.
"That is good to hear, however, I have received a few reports I would like to clear up any confusions." With a slight nod from Potiius, he continued. "In your first report, you never made any mention of any other race other than the humans."
He nodded slowly in response. "Yes, I assumed that the transports would have other races on them but found out shortly that only the humans were on broad. They were likely dropped off some time before this attack."
"That works in our favor then." Slightly happy.
"Sir?!" Stopping for a moment as he spoke before quickly catching. While having less people to deal with made it easier on their supplies, it still would have been better that they were found. Then they could be free and sent home. 'How does this favor us?' was the unasked question.
"You see captain, it was decided by the other primarchs and me that..." They both stepped through a doorway into the bridge and stopped near the center. There were several turians around them, each working on something on their console. "...it is better to keep the other races out of the loop for the moment and until the situation has been resolved. Any questions?"
"No, sir." 'Yes.' Of course he did, but he was a good turian and he wouldn't question orders from the top. He did wonder how they were going to translate their language as the most important question, along with keeping secrets from their allies. The humans have shown no signs of even knowing about the protheans or element zero, meaning human tech is not compatible with anyone else's and will be for some time. However, like a good turian, he kept this all to himself.
"Good." Turning to the center display table. "Now how goes the update with the humans."
Potiius shook his head slightly before moving onto other concerns. "The translation is going well all things considered, but without an asari to mind meld with, it will be quite some time before proper communication can be setup." A nod in respond.
"And the colony."
Potiius tapped several keys on the table and a holo representation of the city and the surrounding around showed up.
"The city itself is located just north of a river with the base about 10 kilometers to the west. There is a forest covering part of the river and around the east part of the city. There are several what are believed to be farms to the north, but the number and size of them are on the small size for the expected size of the population. To the east is mostly plains, with hills dotting the landscape. The buildings themselves are odd in their design, but that is expected." Zooming into the town showed red and black building that were sharp and angular in their design. The layout didn't give a clear indication of what they were, other than a few guesses.
However, some things were clear as day such as the very large roads linking the building, and the center building. It is believed to be an administrative building as it is both in the center and is like no other. There was also a higher number of pirates there than anywhere else. Other buildings such as the medical center were somewhat clear along with a few others.
"Overall this isn't a large city, and given the timeframe, that's to be expected."
"What can you tell me about the pirates themselves?" This was the important bit. If they knew what they were doing, then they would be far more troublesome.
"Its... difficult to say, they are keeping themselves close to the center with what is most likely the rest of the people from the city. There are several patrols around the city as well, but they are keeping away from the outer edges." A few places around the city turned red after a few keys were hit. One to the north, two to the west, and one to the southeast. "These are places that have a much smaller amount of troops in them, and the southeast one we can confirm to have hostages, but the others were already set up before we had a view of the city, so we can't confirm or deny any hostages."
"Mmmm." was Hostus's reply. Giving his chin a light scratch. While it wasn't necessary to save the people, to would no doubt go a long way with the humans to save them. Problem being pirates weren't known to let people live in a losing situation. There were many ways the pirates would react. They could straight up kill them, plant bombs, use them as shields, or any number of other possibilities. However, if they were lucky, they wouldn't do anything that was harmful, and just keep an eye on them. But that was wishful thinking. They would have to plan for any scenario and rely on the training of their troops to see them through.
Hostus shook his head lightly to clear his thoughts. He needed a clear head going forward.
"Is there anything else of note to report?" Looking at Potiius directly.
His reply was preceded by a nod "Yes." Standing just a light bit straighter. "We have set up a base near the human one as a forward operations area and have set up to begin research into it. We are waiting for your command."
Hostus gave a short nod "Give word but tell them to go forward with scans first and small samples first, getting proper communications set up is our highest priority right now. We are here as protectors, not invaders."
Potiius didn't reply, other than signaling the communications officer to send the information to the proper people. As he did so, he noticed the same officer signal him over. Confused, but none the less headed over to see what it was.
"Yes?"
The officer in question spoke up after a moment of hesitation "Sir, I received a message from Arius stating that a human wishes to speak with you." Never looking up for the console.
"Mmmmm." Potiius started thinking on the best way to handle the situation. On one hand, it would be a great way to learn more about the race while also learning about any secrets that may exist in the city to give them an edge in the combat to come. On the other hand, communication was still poor, so how much information could they even get. He also wondered both why the human asked for him as well as how he could communicate properly what he wanted.
As he was thinking this over Hostus walked over and gave his thoughts on the matter "I am curious about these people, why not have the human come over." Having said his piece, he walked back over the holo-table to continue what he was working on.
'Invite him over?!' Looking directly at Hostus like he was crazy. Not only was that outside standard procedure (as far as he could tell), it was highly risky. There was no telling what could happen. Well, that wasn't true, only a few things could happen, but that wasn't the point. Potiius grabbed his head lightly with his left hand before making his decision. While it wasn't an order directly, it was in his best interests to listen to it as it could very well lead to valuable information about humans, and it could help in other areas as well. "Send an affirmative over." The officer nodded in response.
It would be something at least.
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It was sometime later that the human arrived with Arius leading the way along with two guards. While they waited, Hostus and Potiius were going over plans to take out the pirates with the least amount of lives lost, but it wasn't looking too great for the humans, or them. Their two best plans now were to either take it slow and drawing out the battle, or rush in and end it as fast as possible.
Taking it slow would normally be the better option as that would reduce the risk of the troops and allow them to better react if anything unexpected happened. It was the preferred strategy as it allowed both the troops and command time to make changes to the strategy and move forces as needed.
However, as this is a time sensitive mission, they had to act quickly or risk human lives as well setting a bad example for what the Turians represent. Protectors. Only problem, far more turian lives would be lost than anyone would like. Unfortunately, they had little choice in the matter as without more intel on the place (hard to do on foreign land and limited time), they had to work with what little they could get from their scans of the city. True, scanning technology had evolved greatly over the past thousand years, but it could only do so much. It didn't help that the pirates had set up minor electronic scramblers around the city to mess with their scans. It wasn't much, but it did stop them from getting finer details at those locations.
As it stood, any information that they could get from the humans would hopefully give them the edge needed over the pirates.
Coming in with the human was two guards and Arius himself. Arius had a ragged appearance with bloodshot eyes. His uniform had scuff marks and looked like it hadn't been changed in days. He was mumbling to himself about this and that and his body would twitch every now and again. He hadn't slept since first contact with the humans, and it was showing.
Hostus was the first to speak in a slightly assertive tone "You must be Arius. I have heard quite a few things about you, such as opening up dialogue with the humans." Turning to said human whose eyes were partly looking around the room but focused on him when he started speaking. "And you must be the one who wished to speak with us."
Potiius standing straight right next to him says "Introduce us to the human if you would Arius and ask him what he wanted from us." Getting straight to the point. Arius turns to the human and begins speaking for a bit.
The human stands there for a moment, blinks, and speaks in a foreign tongue after a while. While neither Hostus nor Potiius could understand what was being said, Arius could. After a few moments Arius turns to them and says, "He sends his greetings and says his name is Allen." Hoping he said it right. "And asks for your help in retrieving something from down below. He doesn't say what it is, only it is highly important."
Both Hostus and Potiius blinked at that response. It was normal to ask for help against invaders. It was normal to ask for help to save your people. This, however, was not normal. Did he believe they could get back his people without trouble, but that wouldn't explain his need to get that item back. Did he forsake his people for the item? What could the item be for him to do that?
While Potiius thinks this over, Hostus speaks his mind "Kindly ask Allen why this 'thing' is so important? And ask where it is? Depending on where it is, help may have to wait until later?"
Arius nods and turns around to begin talking to Allen. The talking between the two takes a few minutes between them before Arius turns back to them.
Arius shakes his head slightly before speaking "I couldn't get the exact name or nature of what it is, language barrier," shrugs "but I did get that it was some piece of technology that they were building planet side. Other than that, all I got was that that it must not fall into the pirate's hands." Hands twitching every now and again while speaking.
"Right." Hostus not really getting what he wanted. "Well then" Turning to Potiius "thoughts."
Potiius thinks for a moment, "Well, it would be a great way to earn some good will from them, but "turning to look at the holo-table "depending on where it is, it may not be easy to get or retrieve safely."
Hostus mind was in flux. On one hand, making a good first impression was basic knowledge, but that went out the window when pirates came into the mix. On the other hand, was it worth the trouble? He didn't know what exactly the human wanted, and it could very well turn out to be pointless. Sometimes, being Primarch was more pain than it was worth. Shaking his head lightly, he stood up straight and looked over to the others. He breathed out lightly. His job was never done.
"Arius, why don't you have Allen here show us where it is." Nodding in responds, he begins talking to Allen. And not even a minute later, Allen walks over and looks at the holo-table for a few seconds before pointing to a large building near the western edge of the city.
"Well" Potiius started "we needed to clear the pirates out anyway." Clearing not liking this. His right eye twitched.
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While the main force took on the pirates in the area, a small squad was ordered to follow and protect Allen while he retrieved whatever it was that was so important. While some questioned this, no one spoke out loud.
A squad of five elite turians followed behind Allen. Each trained to be the best of the best and having years of experience to draw upon.
The street they were on was quiet and they were still six blocks from their target. Even with little to no enemy contact expected, they were taking it slow and by the book. If an enemy was encountered and killed Allen by some chance… well, none of them wanted to think about the consequences of said action.
A drone returned moments later. It floated towards the squad captain and dispersed into particles that flowed into his omni-tool. The captain looked over the information the drone gathered and grimaced. Everything was looking good, except for one part. A group of pirates was spotted. This alone was the issue, no, not by a long shot. They could always go around if it was.
No, said pirates were ATTACKING THEIR TARGET. Why couldn't it be easy? Shaking his head lightly in respond.
After relaying it to his squad, and with some difficulty Allen, they left the store they stopped at. They had to hurry or risk further complications. They pasted by several human homes made in the design of their strange red angular buildings, that almost screamed machine to the squad. It was unnatural, even with them having their implants. But who were they to question them, even if it wasn't right.
After double and triple checking their surrounding as they jogged around the pirates, they made it to the side of them, with them none the wiser. The familiar firing pattern of mass effect guns going off repeatedly told him the fighting was still going on. But that was all he heard, he didn't hear he kind of return fire, unless the humans used the same type of weapons. However, intel suggested chemical based. Were they just not fighting back? Possible. Or were trying to delay using something else. Again, possible. But he wouldn't find out without checking personally.
Scanning the area, the captain saw the setup. There were nine pirates, all batarian, using what must be cars as makeshift shields and taking pot shots at a single doorway.
The cars themselves didn't seem to be damaged, and the area itself was also mostly undamaged. Several of the surrounding buildings did have broken windows, but what he was concerned about was the few dead batarian he could see, the scorch marks around the doorway, along with a dead krogan near said doorway.
Honestly, he has seen worst, but that was neither here nor there.
From the alley he sent several hands signs to his squad to prepare for a pincer attack. Simple and easy, but deadly tactic. Two of them nodded before back tracking and taking a different route around.
The ambush was ready.
Everything was set. One last look at the pirates showed them still shooting at the doorway every so often. He nodded to himself before lining up a shot a one of the closer ones.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Finger on the trigger and… A brief flash of red light came from the doorway. One of the pirates dropped dead. He nearly stuttered before firing controlled bursts into his chosen target while at the same time moving to a better angle to continue the fight.
Allen, thankfully stay in the alleyway while one of his squad moved with him, the other taking shots from said alleyway. With help from his two squad members, the pirate dropped before they reached the car, but the other pirates took note of their attack.
They were not please.
They all moved to better protect themselves from him…
…but that is what he wanted.
Unfortunately for them, they really didn't have much in the way of cover. The cover they had before were the long sides of the cars, with him now on the short side, and nothing other than open ground (other than the buildings to the far left), didn't spell good times for them. But they made it work.
"Your time is over turian. There are seven of us, and only three of you. Give up and your death will be painless." Give the way his tone hardens near the end; he really didn't like him.
He nearly snorted in respond; as if he would believe him.
Several shots came from around the street corner behind the pirates; his other two squad members entered the battle.
Again, another pirate dropped before they knew what happened. Six left.
"Dam it. Their behind us. Charge them, they can't handle us all at once." The same batarian as before said. A desperate maneuver, but still a possible effective one. Three headed his way, the other three went the other way.
Grabbing a grenade, he threw it into the path of two of them. The panic in their faces, and their movements as they tried to run away, was something that brought a smirk to his face. The explosion that followed moments later engulfed them, no doubt killing them, but he would leave it to his allies to worry about.
He turned and stepped out of the other side of the cover as the other batarian was still charging him. He was already too close for the gun to do anything other than fire a few shots. The batarian fired what few shots he had time for before jumping him and pushing him to the ground.
"You die here turian." The snarl he had made it all too clear for him. The captain had a hold of both batarian's arms mere inches from his face. With a twist of his arm, the batarian was flipped over onto his back, with the captain on top in a moment's notice.
"Oof." A pistol was draw and shoved into the batarian's mouth before he could recover. Said batarian's four eyes widen in shock and surprise in the one second he had left. Once, twice, three times the turian fire his pistol sending small, barely noticeable shockwaves up his arm. The batarian went limb with the second shot. A small amount of red blood could be seen flowing out from behind the batarian's head.
The captain exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding, before standing back up. A quick look around showed his squad already finished with the other pirates. Just as expected.
He reached down and grabbed his rifle off the ground. They still had work to do.
He could already see Allen walking up to the open doorway, but before that he had to check something. Something that he couldn't get off his mind. The flash of red light entered his mind before he walked over to the pirate that was hit by it.
Kneeling next to it, he looked to the top center of it head. It was clear as day that he was done in by something that wasn't a projectile of any kind, at least none that he knew of could do it. The wound was an inch deep and in width, and heavily charred. There were ripples expanding outward from the wound covering over half of his head. His top two eyes looked as if they were flash heated and were partly gone. His skin was far too grey, no doubt dry, and burnt. A quick poke confirmed it.
The wound had to be cause by an energy weapon of some kind. He couldn't think of any other kind of weapon that could cause it.
He looked over to Allen to see him talking either to a mech of some kind, or most likely a solider in full armor. Said solider had a rifle of some kind in their hands; given the size and the way it held it. It was of a slick design, with red lines over a black finish.
Looking over the body again before standing up, he spoke to himself. 'It had to be an energy weapon. There is no doubt that it is.' He collapsed his weapon and stowed it away on his back while walking over to Allen.
"¿Está lista la ACU?" He barely understood what was just said. Something about something ready? Probably asking if what he was after was ready for transport, or if the individual he was talking to was ready to move. He couldn't be sure. Maybe both? He shook his head lightly before stopping near Allen. His squad mates not too far away.
The solider tilted its head in his direction slightly for a few seconds before turning back to Allen and nodding. The solider then turned around and walked back inside the building with Allen right behind. Allen was kind enough to gesture to follow. Being outside was making him wary about possible ambushes. With his squad behind him, he entered.
Inside was a very big and open room with a few people moving about. And based on what little he knew about the building; it was the only room. It took him no more than three seconds to find out what the massive room was for. On the opposite side of the building, was a single massive mech. It had to be several dozen meters tall. It had the same color scheme as everything else the humans build and had a humanoid-ish shape. Instead of hands though, it had strange guns. It had what had to be functional joints, looked like it had armor covering parts of its body, and four slanted spikes around the head, two on each side. There were a few walkways in front of it, with a few people running about but mostly it was disconnected from everything around it.
It was a sight to behold. If he didn't have his helmet on, everyone would no doubt tell, his mouth was a gap.
His second in command nudged his shoulder slightly, before asking "That wouldn't happen to be what we came here for?" He could hear and feel the worry in his voice.
Before he could respond another of his squad replied "Does it matter? Look at the size of the thing. Who builds this? Its impractical" He could sympathize. While big and no doubt intimidating, it was also a large target. He could think of many other reasons, but that was his job to worry or think about such things. If the humans wanted to build something pointless like this, let them waste their time.
"Stow it." Looking over his shoulder at his squad and giving them a hard look, them looking back. He looked around for a second and found Allen entering an elevator right next to the mech. 'Welp, there went that hope.' He started walking over to said elevator, or more importantly the solider from earlier right next to it. While he doubted he would be getting any answers, he needed to try.
And other than people running about, and the solider staring at him, he got nothing.
Sirens started blaring with double side red lights spinning at a few points around the room. Looking around he could tell people were moving away from the front of the mech, and with the freaking wall opening, he could put two and two together.
It was also at this point, he remembered to call command to update them about the situation.
Bring up his omni-tool, he sent a call. It took a few seconds, but he was connected "Captain, is there something you need?" Spoke his operator.
He looked up towards to mech to think of the best way to explain his situation in the quickest and simplest way possible. The walkways surrounding the mech opened before it started moving forward. "We found the piece of technology we were looking for… and it's a massive mech of all things." Body slouching in the processes.
"…What?"
"It's also currently leaving the building." Watching said mech leave while following it outside.
"…What?"
"and we need an evac from our current position asap." Not caring at this point. He really thought the thing would have fallen over by now.
"Redirecting your evac transport now. Eta, two minutes."
"Sir." Looking to his side, his squad mate was directing his attention to an open aired jeep that several humans, including the solider from before, were getting into. "They said they're following after the mech, and that we could join them." The captain nodded in respond.
"Negative on that transport, we found another ride." Already heading over. "Relay the update to command."
"Affirmative."
The call was disconnected moments later.
With the sound horrid sound of the giant metal door grinding back closed, the jeep followed the lumbering, in his opinion, mech.
His mission was technically complete at this point, but he was assigned to watch over Allen. May as well continue and see where this next part goes.
It was several minutes of quiet nothingness, and bumpy ride before they finally reached wherever they were headed. Getting out of the jeep and looking around, he saw a destroyed base. Their base to be precise.
He could see and feel the vibrations in the ground as the mech is moving around doing who knows what. He wasn't sure why it came here or what it was doing. A haven perhaps? It was certainly far away from any pirates, that's for sure.
The humans from the jeep were just milling about around it, as if waiting for something. Shaking his head, he saw several turian troops and engineers heading over, he went to meet them. A faint humming could be heard but was mostly ignored.
Both sides gave the standard salute to each other before speaking "Lieutenant Decilius of the 4th marine division. Overseer of this investigation."
"Captain Larus, special forces. Mission…" He leans slightly to the side to look at the mech walking around the base behind the lieutenant and his men "… keep an eye on that." Before looking back at them.
Decilius shakes his heads while flaring his mandibles in shock and mild surprise "I noticed. It's not exactly subtle." Looking at it briefly.
"I can't say much, only that me and my team were sent to make sure the pirates didn't get it and… that's it. Not much to say about it." He said exasperated.
"Any idea why it's here then? We can't continue operations with it here." Annoyed, but keeping a professional stance.
"It will be best at this point to return to base with what intel you have acquired. Doubtful they like outsiders poking around their base."
He was afraid of that, but he could see the point. What race would like outsiders poking around their military base. "Understand. By your leave then." A nod was the response. A half turn was completed with his arm halfway up to give the command when he noticed a very large wheeled car with a jagged spike in the back driving towards him. And less than a dozen feet away. He slightly panicked but acted quickly to move out of the way. "Where did this come from?" He mumbled. Staring at the car. All the turians were wondering the same thing.
It stopped a few feet past where he was just at before a drone popped out of spike and floated a few feet in front of it. At that point, the turians didn't know what to think, and their minds stopped working with what happened next. The drone started shooting out some red beam that twitched every few moments and a tall but slightly thin building of some kind started coming into existence.
Piece by piece the building was built and after a brief period, it was done.
Thump, lift, turn, thump. Repeat.
The car leaving after a short while, but the turians didn't notice. It took a while before their minds restarted and looked around the base to see what was going on. The once destroyed, and scarred base was now up and running with the same humming as before on a much greater level.
They could see several large two-legged walkers with a long gun and a few six-legged ones walking around the base in a patrol pattern. They could see that there were buildings making such constructs. They saw several buildings that they could define a purpose for but didn't question it. Other than one that looked like a comm tower near the center of the base. Overall, the base was alive where a few minutes ago it was dead.
None of them understood what was going on but seeing the massive mech from before in the center of it all told them the answer.
Decilius spoke up mind still reeling from what happened, "Can someone explain what's going on?" Not actually expecting an answer.
He got none.
What he did get was the mech walking over to the humans and constructing a new building near the humans. Said humans getting up right after it started and getting closer. It was a triangular building with an opened pod on each side with a panel to the side of it. On top was a single claw like appendage on each side that reached down over the pods.
"These humans have found some way to mass construct buildings." Spoke Decilius in an also monotone voice. Looking over at his group of engineers, he saw them with their omni tools out and brief flashes of light going off every few seconds and mumbling to themselves. He could see them recording what was going on. Looking over at Larus, he was talking to his omni tool, likely someone in command. He decided enough was enough and left after speaking with his squad quickly. This was far above his level.
Larus spoke hastily into his comms system "Are you sure this is the best course of action at this time sir?"
"I'm positive. They're unknowns at this point, but friendly ones."
"Alright. I'll do my best."
"That is all I ask."
The line was cut.
"What have I gotten myself into now." Turning to stare into the sky above in wonder.
At the bottom of his vision a few of the mech patrolled on by. Their steps far lighter, but still noticeable, as they pass. Turning around while sighing he walked back over to the humans as they were entering the pods.
Claps gripped their arms, legs, body, and head into place making them unable to move. A cable snaked out from the side of the pod and connected to each human's head. A moment later the claw above the pod twitched before lowering over the pod with the tip pointing directly at their stomach. A red-light starting shooting from the tip to various points on the humans along with from the sides and back. It became clear within seconds what the purpose of the machine was.
Armor was forming around them bit by bit at a rapid pace. First a framework of crisscrossing red lines over different points of their body, than the black armor began forming over them like a wave until nothing of them was seen. The claps released them allowing them to take a step forward. The panel to the side was giving several readouts about the human next to it.
The entire process took around 10 standard seconds and left the turians flabbergasted. And then a weapon popped out from the side. One was a rifle, another a shotgun, and the last was a freaking minigun. At least, that is what they seemed to be given their shape and size.
A tapping from his right-side alerted him and looking it was a human with a cord in hand. A cord that was coming from his head. Staring at said cord and wondering changed nothing. When said human gestured to his right arm, manly the wrist, he understood. He wanted to connect to his omni tool. While the human was unlikely to know what it is, it would be simple to understand it was a computer of some kind.
But then came the question, does he connect the cord to his omni tool. His left eye twitched for the briefest of moments, before he silently agreed, after he locked his omni tool off. He had his orders, earn the humans trust. While wanting to trust the humans, it could easily be a ploy. But like any good turian, he followed his orders.
Taking the cord and making sure a port was compatible, he connected. Shifting his gaze to the human, his reaction was not what he expected. He was staring forward, unmoving. Looking back at his omni tool, it was acting without his input. He flexed his hand tightly, before relaxing. Looking back at the human, more specifically the cybernetics, before shifting back to his omni tool. He could somewhat understand what was going on, but he didn't like it.
Tracking what was happening on his omni tool wasn't too hard, even if it was fast. He kept his attention on it, who knows what the human is looking for. Given the speed, it wasn't easy, but he did keep the human out of restricted areas as best he could. And after a minute of wondering around, he seemed to locate what he was looking for.
The language and translation section all omni tools had.
Blinking in response. While he could speculate on why he was looking for that section, he didn't have to, a progress bar appeared with file appearing in his omni tool. It had a name that he couldn't read. Shifting back to the human, he was still unmoving. Back to the omni tool, the progress was slow, but not too slow. Likely in a few minutes. He just hoped he was doing what he thought he was doing and not something else.
Either way he was getting his omni tool looked over, heavily.
The time ticked by and the bar progress filled ever more until…
The human pulled the cord out right after the bar completed. "That should help with communication, right?"
Looking at him, Larus spoke uneasily "How?"
Pointing at the gaint mech moving about in the base. "You'd be surprised at how much power that thing has. Simple study of communications over time has does wonders." Lightly tapping his cybernetics "This too."
"I'm having trouble believing that works."
"You're having trouble with this." The human raised an eyebrow in displeasure "We're the ones getting invaded." In mild rage while narrowing his eyes "What's with that anyway?"
"They're pirates, best I can give."
Grumbling the human responded, "I find that doubtful."
"I… I don't have the time nor means to properly explain everything to you… you'll just have to trust me on this."
The human didn't respond, but the light glare he gave told Larus he didn't like it.
"Mark my words. We were slaves once before; we won't be again." Before walking off.
What does that mean?!
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The fight for the city was going good as far as General Palus was concerned. The pirates had been pushed back all the way to the final building. They had only a few dozen troops at most, and a few APCs plus a tank. It was looking good. A few more hours and the battle will be won.
A ping on his omni tool alerted him of a message. A low priority one at that. Looking it over, as nothing was happening at the moment. It was an update? A patch to be specific. Shaking his head, he didn't think much of it and clicked accept. He had other things to worry about. Closing his omni tool he got back to work. He had pirates to clear.
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Driving down the road behind some hunters with a mole wasn't how George thought this day would go. Then again, he didn't think he would be meeting alien either. Funnily how life worked.
The hunters turned a corner and started firing. They were here. He pulled over to the side of the road and got out while grapping his rifle. His group following right behind him.
The mole stayed around the corner out of enemy sight and just sat there on its six legs. Cloak off.
Something hit a hunter hard and it stumbled for a moment before firing its pulse laser in return. An explosion around the corner signaled something died. A small smirk made its way to his face as he rushed up to the corner.
Every second something hit one of the hunters as they made their way forward into battle.
Making his way to the corner his HUD changed to give him view of the enemy. Other than the light tanks, and the heavy tank fighting the hunters, there were no combatants. He hated waiting.
Making it to the corner, he watched the battle unfold.
Three hunters vs four tanks. Not bad odds.
The hunters ran forward, showing no fear to the enemy. Given how the tanks immediately started backing up from the hunters spoke much about their enemy. Unfortunately, hunters weren't very smart, or capable in direct combat. The fight was short and brutal.
Given how close the hunter were with the tanks now, it was far easier to see just how massive there were compared to enemy. Mostly height. Something to think about at a latter point.
The hunters were right up in front the tanks, each attacking a different light tank. With each side taking out their opponent at nearly the same time.
Given how fast the light tanks died, George suspected they served a similar role as the hunters but couldn't be sure. The pirates he fought before died far easier than he thought they would. But it could just be bad equipment. Looking behind him at the turians, he couldn't be sure one way or the other. Coming down the road, he saw a mantis with two more hunters coming.
The heavy tank didn't stand a chance.
While the mantis weapon was only a slightly stronger version of the hunter pulse laser, the mantis itself was far sturdier.
Turning the corner, both sides started firing at each other at nearly the same time. However, the mantis fired far faster and started eating into the armor and hull of the enemy tank. It wasn't long in fact, before the enemy tank detonated in a fiery explosion with the mantis suffering only a few minor hits.
He wasn't a combat expert by any means, but he thought it went well.
Nodding to the ones in his group, they had pirates to end.
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I will point this out; this is the end of this combat. I really wanted this done.
My god, this chapter took far too long to finish. I started it several years ago and got like two thousand words in, but just couldn't think about how I wanted the next part to play out. It killed me that I couldn't get it right, until I gave up for a while. Over 8000 words.
But finally, in the last few months I have slowly but surely got back to work on this. I wanted it done before Christmas, but I failed. Sorry. But it is ready for New Year's Day.
I wish you all who come and read my stories a good new year, and happy holiday.
There is one thing I wanted to bring up and wanted some of your thoughts on it. The main gun of mass effect ships is compared directly to nukes, mainly the dreadnought. And supcom has nukes, doing some math says that the main gun of a dreadnought (assuming the nuke from supcom is comparable to the nuke they talk about in mass effect) does tens of thousands of damage. Given the way mass effect starships should work, that makes sense. It means that in space combat, the mass effect side isn't beaten just yet. Ground side they are screwed.
Also, found a neat little thing that gives me all the unit sizes in meters tans
Anyway, have a good day.